Why do you have to communicate problems and not solutions?

We talk easy marketing when we understand that matching the right message to the right target customer is pretty much everything your possible results revolve around .

Think for yourself and how you behave when you are a potential customer for someone… you give them about 5 seconds to get and hold your attention, because you don't want to waste more of that time (precious to you) following a message that doesn't connect immediately with your possible needs.

You, just like your potential customer, demand an effective message. Your messages therefore, need to speak clearly about what your ideal target customer wants more than anything in the world.

And what does your target customer want?

He wants to solve his problems!

In other words, your potential customers will never care about your great products or wonderful services unless you first let them know that you understand what they really want.

Easy marketing: always remember that…

Nobody really wants what you sell, what they buy is what they can get from what you sell

Essentially, your ideal target customer wants their problems solved, period!

Have you ever worked on this concept?

Make a list of the problems you solve for customers, focusing on the ones where you can help them the most.

If you find it difficult to think about the problems of your target customer, think for example of the things they tell you, about which they complain the most.

For example, a potential client of mine, since I deal with consultancy for the creation of winning marketing strategies, could tell me things like: "I would just like to receive more phone calls..." or "It would be enough for my website to generate leads...".

Consequently, my rewarding message for that target customer could never be that "I sell marketing consultancy" but more appropriately that "I make your cell phone ring" or that "I fill your e-mail box with requests".

I'm deliberately simplifying the concept but, since we're talking about easy marketing, these examples have the advantage of making the concept immediately clear.

Now think about it…

Does your current communication talk about you and your products/services/solutions/achievements or does it talk to your target customers about the problems they want to solve?

You see, I'm talking about easy marketing, because your potential customers may not know how to solve their problems or how to do it in the best way, but you can be sure that they know very well what their problems are.

Therefore, if you manage to communicate effectively and demonstrate that what you are selling is the answer to their problem, it doesn't matter to them what you call or detail your solution, because if they buy it, they will do so because you have convinced them that you can solve their problem .

The key messages

Take some time and analyze all the products/services/solutions/realizations that you propose, every single benefit or advantage that you attribute to what you do and try to evaluate if they all contain a "key message" for your ideal target customer ( remember… the right message to the right target). In one of the next articles, we will return to talk about Buyer Personas and how to define them.

Key messages can be statements, questions or even anecdotes, but they must be effective from the point of view of your target customer.

Take some time now to browse your website… go into every single page and ask yourself:

• Is this headline capable of capturing the attention of my target customer?
• Is that title about me or about him?
• Is it a key message or just a trivial and unoriginal title?

If you are among those who say or could say "it would be enough for my website to generate leads..." now you can start asking yourself questions but above all giving yourself answers.

How can you help you create key messages?

Carefully choose some of your customers among those with whom you have a very good relationship and try to ask them:

What's the biggest problem we've solved for you? What do you think he does much better than anyone else?

If you don't want to ask questions or to further improve your chances, ask for testimonials and pay close attention to the words and phrases most used by your customers to describe their experience with you or with your products/services/solutions/achievements.

Think that by doing so, you could even end up writing or rewriting your value proposition.

The right message to the right target customer

Who is your ideal target customer? Who are you problem solving in a highly effective way?

Reflecting on this can mean many things… who you can offer the most value to, who you like to work with, who needs more what you do better than others…

Defining and profiling your ideal target customer is essential to understanding who to reach and how to reach them.

If you think about those who are already your satisfied customers today and with whom you are satisfied… what makes them ideal for you?

Are they highly profitable? Do they refer you to other potential clients?

Choosing Your Perfectly Defined Ideal Target Customer

Have you ever tried to think of your customers in these terms: What qualities should my ideal customer have?

Thinking like this is liberating, don't you think?

However, think about it seriously… Don't you deserve to work with clients who can truly appreciate the value you are able to generate for them?

You could also start by thinking about, for example, which clients you don't want to work with…

Until you know exactly who you want, deserve and choose to work with, it will be inevitable that you will also attract those (if not especially those…) you don't want to work with.

Worrying sight like this, isn't it?

And yet, for professionals, professional studios, micro and small businesses , this is often the reality!

To arrive at your CTIPD (Perfectly Defined Ideal Customer Target Customer) , you need to ask yourself who exactly are the ones you can offer the most value to, as well as you should know who are the ones you enjoy working with or again… who needs what you know most do better.

Having a CTIPD means knowing precisely what are the problems it wants to solve and/or the wishes it wants to achieve and/or the results it wants to achieve.

Think again… who are your best customers today? What makes them or would even make them ideal for you?

For example: Do they refer you to other customers? Do they guarantee you a good margin?

Follow these 5 steps to identify your perfectly defined ideal target customer

You can start, if you have it, from the history/current portfolio of customers… and, step by step, narrow down your list…

Step 1

What characteristics must it have among those that are already abundantly known to you?

Does it have to have a certain income or turnover? Does it have a specific profession, activity or is it a specific type of business? …

Step 2

What are the other preferable features?

A certain age range? The sex? A certain geographical area? One or more special interests? …

Step 3

What makes or would make it ideal?

Does it have a certain business model or does it have a specific activity? Do you have a recurring problem? An often unsatisfied desire? Do you want to get a certain result? …

Step 4

What are his behaviors?

Are you a member of an association? Attend certain events? Do you read particular publications? On which social media are you present and active? Where do you find information today? On what criteria do you decide to buy? …

You have to narrow the field as much as possible, because you have to be clear about the type of customer who considers what you offer personally and in terms of products/services/solutions/realisations as "special" .

Step 5

What do you think?

Once you've built a first profile thanks to the first 4 steps, you need to spend some time understanding what his thoughts are .

To do this, ask yourself these questions:

What is he most concerned about? What makes him happy? What challenges does it face? What do you hope to get from me/us? What goals are you trying to achieve? What excites him the most? Who do you trust the most and why? …

These are all questions thanks to which you will be able to find very important communication elements within your marketing strategy.

Knowing exactly who your CTIPD is could even allow you to build, restructure or relaunch your entire business around them, thus rethinking not only key messages in terms of communication, but also products, services, solutions, warranties and , you could do it, thinking first of all about the margin, the profit, that is the profitability of your business.

Interesting right? Yes, but how does it happen?

Having the answers to the questions and, consequently, the perfect profile of your CTIPD, will allow you to be more performing (and to be more targeted and complete) with respect to their specific wishes and needs.

Basically, if you become exactly what your CTIPD is looking for, in every respect, the least of its problems will be price.

Why?

Because what your CTIPD is looking for is not the lowest price but, just like when YOU are someone else's CTIPD , the best price. And the best price is never the lowest price!

If everything you do is focused on the high responsiveness to the needs / needs / problems / desires / utility of a specific CTIPD and if you communicate the right messages to intercept it , you will be able to make more and more sales less conditioned by the price, because you will be exactly that that your CTIPD is looking for .